The Linn LP12 - still in use today, fully current, and despite the evident satisfaction I get from my do-everything PS3, Linn Unidisk, and Pioneer plasma, this do-one-thing-really-well item still delivers more pleasure than anything else. Does that disqualify it?

Magnepan SMGa's - my first real high-end speaker, and it introduced me to real music. It's why I learned to love Miles, Monk, Herbie, and Mingus in addition to Peter Gabriel. A speaker that was genuinely flawed, but somehow so well-balanced in it's flaws that it really delivered music.

Ah, the simple days...all I had to do was work 35 hours a week, go to class and sit next to some Univ. of Fla. babe, buy some $3.00 used Coltrane records, a $1.89 bottle of King Cobra or a Mickey's Big mouth, and that was entertainment for the night. Good times!